Have Fun, Stress Less when Vacationing with the Kids ~Post 1: Streamlining the preparation with 15 easy tips

Vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -August 2012

With a little bit of planning you can have a “FUN” vacation, but you need some tips to prepare yourself ahead of time when traveling/vacationing with kids. The following are steps you can take to use as a guideline. I’m telling you I am the master at traveling light and effortless, since we had to travel back and forth from Indiana to Pennsylvania every year. The following may be a little out of order but extremely helpful.

1. Think out your whole trip ahead of time. Sort of a budget before the month begins. So you know mostly what to expect and life isn’t too out of sorts for you and your kids. Preparation is key.
2. Determine your length of stay, a couple of days, a week, 2 weeks or more, then you can plan around this time accordingly.
3. If you are driving, will you drive all the way through or break the trip up. I break the trip up by staying over night in a hotel if the drive is longer than 7 hours. Since I have four kids ages 16, 12, 9, and 7, you can see why. I do want to get to my destination, but with my sanity intact!!
4. What amenities does the Hotel/Villa/Condo have for convenience once you’re there. Don’t be surprised at what they have and don’t. Get acquainted with their policies online for pets, gym, pool, laundry, and access to the outside, the internet and ATM, oh and do they provide a free breakfast?
5. With hotels, are you going all-inclusive or are there any hidden fees. Also, sign up for their club card if applicable to maybe earn nights or get coupons and discounted stays. My husband is a “Priority Club” member of HolidayInn so that helps earn free nights for us if we choose to go with HolidayInn.
6. Check various websites, like hotels.com or priceline, orbitz, expedia, travelocity to find and compare hotel deals. I did this and then went to my hotel website to see if they had anything to offer. They actually had the lowest pricing. So I booked on the hotel site. You can also check for coupon codes for a better deal.
7. Pack lightly, Don’t pack “Just In Case” style. So that you don’t have too much to bring with you.
8. Check the weather for traveling to and from your destination. So that you are prepared for what is to come for the most part.
9. Make sure trunk is packed efficiently. Where you can see through the back window safely, or if your lucky to have a case for on the roof of your car, this will not apply.
10. If staying longer than a week, will you need to do laundry? If so, do they have a service that they will bill to your room. Or laundry facilities that you can use. Remember to get a roll of quarters if that’s the case.
11. Can you get away with packing kids clothes in a backpack, they can carry it on their back and help take things to the hotel room. This is how I would always pack my little ones things, but now their clothes are getting bigger so I have to stuff into a small wheeled suitcase. I would sometimes double up 2 in 1 suitcase.
12. Bring Ziploc bags in various sizes: Gallon, Quart, Sandwich.
13. Separate Kids and Adults phone/laptop/iPod/tablet etc chargers, into baggies. Then the ones you need when traveling in car can be easily reached for if mom keeps them in purse or where kids will be seated.
14. Moms, always keep camera and Smartphone in purse for those times when you need to take a quick picture or make a phone call.
15. Make a list of the things you will need for the trip. That being said, will you need snacks, drinks, medication, special needs, batteries, tickets? Write it down so you don’t forget when your at the store.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post so far, but you’ll have to come back tomorrow… to be continued. So stay tuned for Part 2. Hope you have a great start to your weekend. See you tomorrow!! ~Christina

 

 

 

After the Birth, Baby Gifts~ Memory Keepsake Photo

You go into the hospital for labor and delivery and you come out with the most precious of gifts a baby girl, then she starts to grow up. That little baby is now 9 years old and time surely does fly. I want to thank myself for taking the time out to take photos of what she received when she was born. Now, she and I have a memory, of the sweet things people got for her then. Soon after we came home, since everything is in bags, boxes and such, I cleared off the kitchen table and sat everything on it. Then a couple of days later, when I had the time between feedings and diaper changes, I arranged them into a display and took several photos up close. Here is one of the photos I took. Including flowers, clothes, cards, stuffed animals, baby blankets etc. I think this is a great idea to remember those baby days for Mother and Child. Start planning now for when you go to deliver (if your expecting) and you’ll be so pleased to look back on such a wonderful time. I know I am. ~Christina

Day 21 CHALLENGE LookyLoo Animal photos!

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In case you were wondering: 1. In all my years when I was in Pennsylvania, I never came across this. Four Turkeys making a getaway and using my back yard to get there. 2. Notice the date, they knew something was up, November 25th was right around the corner!! 3. A swarm of blackbirds, I thought I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. 4. My bird Baxy, she happened to land on the shower while it was on, crazy bird. 5. My buddy, the squirrel, he kept going up this tree and sitting on the littlest branch then he’d check out the pond next to our home and he stayed like this for a long time. 6. Our Beagle Chloe’ her nose was always buttin’ into something. 7. Kitten and her FurReal Kitten. 8. Sassy and Sophie doing there usual mid-afternoon, love/hate dance. 9. Sassy as a kitten in her favorite basket/bed. 10. The Salamander that crossed our back patio. See you tomorrow, leave me some comments!! Adios

Day 14 CHALLENGE Update on Camera

 
Well I had planned on doing some projects this week, but my camera had officially died. I had an Olympus, it was a great camera with 10x optical zoom and megas were 7.0, but the picture was starting to get a little fuzzy at the end and then I dropped it. Too bad, that is why no pics or projects lately. So I decided I was not going to spend alot on getting a new camera and I didn't. The brand I had gotten was a Samsung SL600 and it is 12.2 megapixels with a 5X optical zoom. I bought it from Walmart and the price could not have been better. It was a clearance camera for $74.00 and discounted down to $58.00. I don't know about you but I love to get a bargain. Besides my Olympus was $250 and was only 7 megapixels. Anyways, here are some random pictures I took:


Not bad. Now I can concentrate on projects. Till tomorrow~

Organizing Photos

This process is a little lengthy. What I have found is to just dive in and get started to keep the momentum going. I figured out an easy system anyone can do, low cost, and gets the photos out of the developing envelopes and shoeboxes that are typical storage for your photos. You get to show them off finally!! Here's the final product:

I started off by separating photos and memorabilia by child, me, hubby, family and pets. This was done over medium sized baskets and bins, for sorting out. Seen here:

** I am avid scrapbooker, but now do it digitally when I have the time. The problem I found with scrapbooking is that it made the process of getting photos into albums, take forever and I finally gave up. I tend to be a perfectionist, because afterall these are my photos and a 2 page layout would take me sometimes 3 hours with all of the cutting, pasting and such. Way to long. I really wanted my kids to see themselves whenever they wanted and no matter how many roles of film they were placed where they were visible. 


So I separated the photos and memorabilia then I sorted all of the memorabilia into a designated art/school/memorabilia file tote for each child and adult

I then put school photos, sports photos and anything oversized into 3-ring binders and page protectors, this is  a great system that you can move around easily if needed. 

Then I Got Photo Albums at Michaels craft storehttp://michaels.com/art/online/home that were 40% off at the time

They display 5~ 4x6 photos on each page

I then cut up sheets of beautiful patterned papers that are glitterized and foiled for my daughters scrapbook pages, they come in tablet form in 12x12 sheets and I cut them down to 8 1/2 x 11 size for the page protectors also at Michaels. The binders I've used you can customize with papers on the cover and a strip on the side and another sheet for the back. I did this for future scrapbooking and they have in tablet form the same type papers in 4x6 size, just rip one off and stick photo to it then to scrapbook page. Easy!!

Heres some of the pretty papers also found at Michaels craft store or Joanns www.joanns.com

How beautiful are these?

Heres a pic of all of them together

Another

Now a boys version

Well if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here. Thanks for looking and I hope that I have helped some of you out. 'Ciao PS My kids love to look at themselves now and not lost in the shuffle.